


The Shadow Side

by bjfic_archivist



Category: Queer as Folk (US)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Canon, Inspired by Real Events
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-03-05
Updated: 2005-03-05
Packaged: 2018-12-27 05:26:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12074397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bjfic_archivist/pseuds/bjfic_archivist
Summary: Justin is a shaman. He has a destiny that involves many different people and will take him from his village to Pittsburg, the place of his birth.. He will change the world.





	The Shadow Side

**Author's Note:**

> Note from IrishCaelan, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [The Brian/Justin Fanfiction Archive](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Brian_Justin_Fanfiction_Archive). To preserve the archive, I began importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in September 2017. I posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on [The Brian/Justin Fanfiction Archive collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/bjfic/profile).

Everything was green. Outside the window was green, flying passed as they drove along the narrow muddy track. Inside the truck, the green of there drivers fatigues stood out against the seat. Justin was also pretty sure that his face was green, the track was rough with big and small bumps constantly passed under the moving tires. Leaning forward he looked at his mother sitting in the front. She looked perfect like always, face straight, proud in her tan shorts and singlet. Her body hardly moving with the many jumps of the truck.

It seemed everything was always moving under him these days. First a plane out of the United States, then stopping to change planes in several places he couldn’t pronounce the name of. When they finally got out of an airport, one that look very different then the first one they had left US from, he wanted to ask his mother where they were. But he was to old to ask questions that he should already know the answer to. He was almost ten, and he’d been ignoring his parents whenever they talked about this trip. It always lead to them yelling at each other, so he’s blocked out everything to do with it. He’d just nodded and agreed whenever they asked him something about it. 

From what he had heard, his mother had to go away to work for a long time, and she wanted Justin to go with her. His father didn’t want him to go with her, even though he lived with his mom already and hardly ever saw his dad these days. Justin’s mother was a biologist, that meant she studied plants and animals in lots of different places. Justin had gone with her before to different places in America and Canada, and had enjoyed the trips. Learning school stuff without a teacher was strange at first, but he could do the work easily and it gave him time to draw. He liked to draw all the plants and animals around him in the places they went too. They always went somewhere without many people and there was never a McDonalds. 

He also knew that this time they would be away for a lot longer then any other time, and a lot further away. That was ok, he wouldn’t miss his dad, and he didn’t have any friends to miss. The other kids made fun of his pig tails and called him ‘Girly Boy’. He liked his hair though, his mother said it was beautiful, and brushed it for him every day. She’d always wanted a girl, he knew this from listening when his parents were fighting. That was before they decided not to live together, before he’d learned to stop listening. 

He really wished he’d listened now, so he could know where they were going and not have to ask like a little kid. Fiddling with his hair he looked out the window again, everything was still green.Outside where trees covered in vines, surounded by ferns, this was rainforest vegetation. They had taken a boat once they’d gotten of the bus they caught from the last airport, and covered shallow water for fifteen minutes. The waves had swished the boat up and down and he’d been sick over the side of the boat before they landed on a little beach, where they met the driver who his mother said was taking them to there final destination. 

Gathering his courage and trying to keep his moving stomach settled, Justin looked at his mothers blonde head over the back of the seat. “Mom, where are we going?” He said. In his most indifferent voice. She didn’t even turn in her seat. “Where in Farbemngita and are going to stay with some people here while I work, Honey.” Justin pulled on his hair again. Mom had already told him that they had to use rainforest rules here. Not touching anything if he knew it was dangerous or didn’t know what it was. Being polite and quiet until he understood the peoples customs, not to laugh at anything he thought was strange because it might be normal for them. They’d stayed in places that looked like this before, he was a veteran and wouldn’t embaress his mother by acting like a baby in front of the people they were going to live with.

Finally the truck stopped as they came to a clearing. His mother and there driver took all the equipment out of the back of the truck and put it on the ground. Justin helped by carrying the big box with all his mom's pencils, that she used to draw pictures of plants with. He felt it was the most important thing, so he carried it whenever they moved around. They didn’t have to wait long, before three people came walking out the trees, along a hidden trail. They were very interesting to look at. There skin was dark but there hair was white and long. Longer then his or his mothers, and divided and tied to hang on both sides of there faces. They had pig tails, just like him! 

There were two men and one woman. They were talking with his mother and the driver about boring adult stuff, mostly in words he couldn’t understand. So he looked at the people more, they were so interesting looking. They didn’t wear many clothes and where covered in jewelry made of shiny wood, little stones and shells. One of the men who wasn’t talking as much as the others, turned and looked at Justin, sitting on one of the boxes. He said something and they all turned to look at him, then started talking even more. The woman let out a strange sound he thought might be a laugh. 

The man who had looked at him, came over to him as they others kept talking. He wasn’t very tall, a little shorter then his mom, but thicker looking. He walked right up to Justin and got down on one knee to look him in the eyes. “Bonjour.” He said. Justin knew some french and also spanish. “Bonjour.” Justin said back. He stared into the mans brown eyes. “You have pig tails like me.” He continued in french. The man looked confused so Justin pointed at each of the mans thick ties of hair then patted his own to show they where the same. The man made a sound of understanding and nodded smiling. “You are like us.” He said to Justin. Sitting down in front of him crossed legged. “I am Yinkirkani sha Soulgrehb Grehb’nahkci.” Justin stared at him blankly.

The man with the big name smiled. Justin liked that he smiled so much. It was always easier to get along with the people they stayed with when they smiled like the people at home did. “That is big words to you, I explain. Yinkirkani is family, Soulgrehb is self, Grehb’nahkci is home. You call me Soulgrehb because you are a child.” Justin looked over at his mother and the other people, they were still talking. Thinking, he tried to figure out how to introduce himself. “I’m Taylor Justin Pittsburgh. Everybody calls me Justin, because I’m Justin.” 

“Do you like Mr Bean, Justin?” Justin nodded. He’d watched the english comedy show before and laughed a lot, it was very funny. “When I go to the mainland I see shows in the cinema, Mr Bean is the one I like the best.” Soulbrehb continued. Just then Justin’s mother called for him, and Soulbrehb was called back to the others as well. He was introduced to the other two people. Mahlbrehb, the other man. And Mary the woman, who wore a little wooden cross around her neck and a pale t-shirt, unlike the other two who were bare chested. 

They picked up some boxes, as did Justin and his mom until they had everything and started walking back down the track the people had came from. Justin carried the pencil box as they walked in a line through the undergrowth. He was in the middle, with Soulgrehb in front and his mom behind him. They both talked to him, explaining that the village was just a short walk from where the truck had dropped them of. In only a few minutes they came to another clearing, this one occupied by people and small wooden houses and huts. As they walked through the village some of the children stopped to look at him. There hair was in pig tails too, but it was a shiny black/brown that matched there eyes. Looking out into the distance to his right, he could see the ocean, on his left, there was only forest. 

They walked until they got to the biggest building, standing in front of it were some more adults. Most of the adults around looked like Soulbrehb in the way they dressed, some wore western clothes but not many. These adult's were highly decorated and seemed very important. His mom greeted then by bowing slightly, he just stood there as his mom talked to them. Afterwards, they were shown to one of the houses, he learned that this was where Mary lived and that they were going to stay with her. They unpacked there clothes into a big chest, and his mother told him there was going to be a a welcome for then tonight, but before that Mary was going to show them around. 

“Mom?” He asked. Pulling shorts out of his bag. “Yes, Honey?” She didn’t look up from fiddling with her solar charger. “How long are we going to stay here?” He didn’t think she’d ever given him an estimated time. Just vaguely said that they were going to be here a while. His mom put down her solar charger, the thing she used to get power to her phone and computer. She suddenly seemed to crumple in on herself, and brought a hand to her face. “I don’t know, Baby.” She whispered. All the strength she’d held as they’d travelled seemed to drain from her in a few seconds. Crawling across the floor Justin wrapped his arms around his mother and held her. He didn’t know what to do, his mother was in pain and he couldn’t do anything about it. “Mom, don’t be sad. It’s nice here, I like it.” She didn’t move, just held Justin a little tighter. He babbled on about what he thought of this place and how much fun they were going to have here. She held her son in her lap and rocked him like she sometimes did when he was crying. Justin just kept on talking.

“And did you see they have pig tails? Just like I do! And they wear shells like me too.” He pulled his cowry pendant out from under his shirt to show her, even though she had been the one to give it to him. She looked at the pendant, and for the first time, in what felt like forever, he saw her smile. They got cleaned up then and Mary came to take them on the tour. There last stop was to go down to the beach. Mary showed them the shore, Justin listened as she gave them a geographical outline of the island. It was very big, only slightly separated from the main land. All along the village’s part of the island were volcanic rocks with only small sand stretched in between, so boats couldn’t dock on this side of the island. A barge and a few small boats went back and forth across the other side, as there was a weather station on the top of one of the mountains. 

By sunset the welcome had started at a clear ground not far from the village. Several large fires were evenly spaced throughout the area. Justin sat next to his mom, everyone was served a fish dish that tasted really good. But then Justin thought just about everything tasted really good. He loved food. The man on his other side was old, he had a calm, all knowing feeling about him. He was skinny like most of the people here and carried the usual style of minimal clothing and lots of jewelry. The most on anyone Justin had seen so far. He was using a long tie to twist around his hair, crisscrossing like long thin vines. Leaving to poles of twisted white hair on either side of his head. Justin was afraid to talk to him, he seemed important. But that really didn’t matter, because the man seemed to want to talk to Justin. 

In simple french he told Justin about the lessons he would be having here, to learn the language and customs. Then he would be able to join the other children in regular lessons. Reading, writing and mathematics, tribal history, local flora and fauna with one of the medicine women, hunting and survival skills with the tribes warriors. Justin was interested in learning how to hunt, and asked many questions about what weapons were used and what was hunted. His mother stopped him from getting to excited by reminding him that he had a lot to do first and with all this he still had his normal school work, which he got by mail or email and had to do whenever he was away from Pittsburg. 

After they were done eating, there was music. It was strange but Justin like it, it reminded him of being asleep and dreaming. They moved out of the way to watch people dance. The man who had sat next to him, who’s name was simply “Zairne’” Asked if he would mind meeting the tribal shaman. Agreeing, he went with Zairne’ to a man sitting on a mat next to one of the fires. He was very unremarkable looking, and had an expressionless face with many lines on it. After being introduced to the man “Keingehbe” he sat down beside him and Zairne’ sat to the side of them as he was to translate. 

He looked Justin over and used a finger to lift the cowry shell pendant showing just above Justin’s shirt collar. It had three shells woven on their sides into the leather, one large shell with two smaller ones on either sides. He’d seen it in a shop in mexico and had to have it, begging his mother until she gave in. Letting go of the pendant, he then asked Justin several questions that Zairne’ translated for him. Then doing the same for Kiengehbe when he answered. The questions ranged from “What is your favourite fruit?” to “Which way does the sun rise?” it was all fairly simple, until finally his last question. “What do you dream?” Zairne’ said after the shaman. 

Justin thought for a long time about what to tell him. About the dream where his parents are yelling at him instead of each other. The one about the snakes, how he kills them. The dream with the man who hugs him like his dad used to, how he feels so safe in that dream. The dreams with guns and storms and fire, that make him so scared he sometimes wets the bed. He ends up telling him everything. He lets it all out and tells someone for the first time about his dreams. Even his mom dosn’t know about them. After, Kiengehbe says he can go, so he gets up and walks over to sit in his mom’s lap. Thinking about the dreams always makes him want to be held. She wraps her arms around him and together they watch the people dancing. 

Several months later, things were going well for Justin. His mom was working hard cataloguing plants. He was learning the language quickly and progressing with his school work. The headman, after seeing his drawings, asked him to draw a picture of his wife. Justin, was so honoured he’d squealed and jumped up and down, making the headman laugh. So here he was, on the steps of the headman's house. Drawing Canstishi as she washed dishes. This being the only time he could find when she was relatively still. She was a very active woman and always seemed about to go somewhere else and was in a real hurry to get there. 

He was more then half done when looking up, he went still. He saw a snake close to her feet. He wanted to scream but it might bite her. Quickly he tried to think of the native word for “snake” as it was the only language Canstishi spoke. He couldn’t remember it. Bending slowly he picked up one of the large volcanic stones that sat either side of the doorways in all the homes in the village. Taking careful aim, and timing it just right, Justin threw the rock down to land squarely on the snakes head. Canstishi jumped with a yelp as the snakes flailing body brushed against her legs before it went limp. Breathing heavily she turned to Justin, standing calmly at the bottom of the steps. 

A few others had heard Canistishi and had come to see what had happened. A few gasped, someone stepped forward and pulled the limp tail strait, studying the snakes colour and patterns. It was Soulgrehb, frowning he let go of the snakes tale and places one of his feet on top of the rock, holding it down, making sure it was dead before he lifted the rock. “We don’t often find snakes in the village. They don’t like to be close to the ocean.” He said, lifting the rock as someone held out a plastic bag for Soulgrehb to put it in.“You did well Justin, this kind is poisonous. Were you not afraid?” Soulgrehb sat on the steps and pulled Justin down so he sat beside him. The people moved on when they saw that no one had been harmed. 

“It would have killed her.” He whispered. Staring at the rock. “She would have knocked over the washing tub and fallen over. Then the snake would have crawled behind that rock.” Justin’s eyes were getting misty. He’d seen it all before, saw what would have happened, what he had to do. He started to rock himself as he watched the rock. Soulgrehb pulled Justin towards him and put his arms around him, rocking with Justin as he started to cry. “Shhh, do not cry Laebe’.” That was what Soulgrehb had taken to calling him, it meant “little friend”. Soulgrehb had become a good friend of his mother. He and Justin got on well. “Why do you think that so surely? It may never have touched her.” Soulgrehb asked. 

“I saw it.” Said Justin, hiccuping. He wiped his snotty nose on his shirt. “In my dream. If I didn’t know it would kill her, I would have been to afraid to pick up the rock. I would have watched as it bit her when she hit it with her foot.” Soulgrehb looked thoughtful, as he stroked Justin’s head soothingly. Someone said something behind him in native, to quickly for him to understand, Soulgrehb responded just as quickly and they argued for a minute before Soulgrehb hung his head. Finally looking up, Justin saw that it was Kiengehbe, the village shaman. “Justin.” Soulgrehb moved away from Justin to look him in the eye. “Justin, Kiengehbe says this is not the first time you’ve dreamt true.” Justin picked up the pencil he’d dropped and started fiddling with it. He’d never talked about it, but he’d known that Kiengehbe knew about him. 

By the end of the day he had even more school work. He now had to meet with Kiengehbe every day to learn dream interpretation and the ways of the shaman. Kiengehbe, Soulgrehb, his mom, the headman and his wife all met and Justin was thanked formally while his mother pawed him, making certain he hadn’t been harmed. Then Kiengehbe apparently brought up the dream thing because there was more arguing very fast. Justin blocked it out until they were finished. His mom looked worried, Soulgrehb resigned, the headman and his wife shared an uneasy look and Kiengehbe looked expressionless like he always did, but he seemed to have a triumphant glow around him. 

When he went to bed he had a dream, a good one without death or pain. It was the man who held him, the first time he’d had it, he thought it was his dad. But it didn’t feel like his dad. His dad felt grey and silver. The man was deep red, plush brown, dark green, very thick. He sometimes dreamed of him as a teddy bear with soft brown fur that he could curl in to. This time he was a man, with arms and legs and a head. For the first time he spoke to Justin. Before he’d always been silent. “Everything is going to be alright.” The man whispered with no voice. When Justin woke up the next morning, he told Kiengehbe about his dream as best he could. It was hard, he vowed to learn the language better. It felt good to be able to tell someone about his dreams.


End file.
